Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's exposé of cheap chicken has got me hungry. Hungry for a bean burger, soya chicken nuggets or some other food product that isn't synonymous with cruelty and disease. The Big Food Fight has certainly ruffled a few feathers, and we have seen coverage and comment every day for some time.

What most writers and critics don't seem to understand, though, is that while factory farms and battery conditions are something to be hopping mad about and while we at PETA support all efforts to get rid of the worst abuses of farmed animals, the production of meat will always be inherently cruel. You can raise animals in better conditions, remove the drugs from their food and slap organic or free-range labels on their carcasses, but in the end, if you are eating meat, you're paying someone to kill animals - unnecessarily.

Of course, I am not suggesting for one moment that we should ignore the pleas of celebrity chefs to improve conditions for animals. The filthy, cramped and dismal living conditions that chickens, pigs and other animals live in certainly need to be addressed. But we should think twice about so-called "humane meat" and other such curious concepts. There is blood and gore in less-cruel meat, just as there is in the worst factory-farmed meat. As the three million vegetarians in the UK prove, we can enjoy a healthy, tasty and diverse variety of foods without contributing to such suffering.

Let me explain, for readers who missed the first episode of The Big Food Fight, what happens to animals when they are slaughtered for human consumption. It isn't a pretty read, but then again, if you find it too repulsive to consider, perhaps you shouldn't be participating in it.

More than 800 million chickens are killed every year in the UK for their flesh. When their time has come, at just a few months old, they are hung upside-down by their feet and sent via a conveyor belt to be decapitated by disillusioned and desensitised workers. They are rushed along, first to have their heads dunked in electrified water and then to have their throats slit so that they will bleed to death. Because of pressure and shortcuts from profit-greedy bosses, not all chickens are stunned by the water and malfunctioning machines often miss the animals' throats and cut into their wings, torsos or legs instead - sending the animals into the scalding tank fully conscious. Other farmed animals suffer similar fates.

Then you have the people who claim that eating fish is a completely different matter and that fish don't feel pain. The over-fishing of our seas is not new news, but it may surprise you to learn how fish die when caught - it is not painless. When removed from the ocean, fish experience an ordeal similar to what we would undergo if dropped to the bottom of the deep blue sea. They decompress. Intense internal pressure often ruptures their swim bladders, pops out their eyes and pushes their oesophagi and stomachs up through their mouths. Those who aren't dead by the time they reach the ship's deck are cut open while still alive.

In an article on Cif earlier this week, Anne Perkins wrote that only the rich can afford to participate in ethical shopping. While PETA supports efforts to get rid of the worst abuses that animals are made to suffer, it must be said that ethical eating is not just for the wealthy. A vegetarian diet is less expensive than a meat-based one - nutritious and delicious fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains, faux "meat" and other staple choices of the world's vegetarians can be cheap to buy - and it's also the kindest choice for our environment and for animals. Visit www.GoVeg.com and www.VegCooking.com for more information and to see how easy it is to make kinder - and healthier - food choices.

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